


The Studio

by orphan_account



Category: The Office (US), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Anime studio, M/M, Midoriya Izuku is a Mess, Office Pranks, Parody Crossover, White Elephant Gift Exchange, office politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:15:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21882862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Prompt: Bakugou and Deku work at the same place. Deku takes the job seriously but Bakugou doesn’t, so why is Bakugou up for a promotion or raise?In this parody of The Office (US), the Quirkless classs of 1-A work at an anime studio adapting a manga series many of them grew up reading. As the holidays approach, Midoriya Izuku is lost in his work, while Bakugou Katsuki wins a promotion Midoriya wanted, spurring an office rivalry for the ages that can only end in the best possible way!
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Midoriya Izuku
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33
Collections: 12 Days of BakuDeku 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wenndi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wenndi/gifts).



Midoriya Izuku was the first to arrive at work, per usual. He liked it this way. He took off his yellow mitten to punch in the code at the door. He fat-fingered two of the buttons and was greeted with a _BZZT!_ as he punched the star key to submit the code. He sighed, his breath escaping in a cloud on this cold winter day. He took a deep breath and punched the code in again. As he punched the star, there was a click, and the lock disengaged. He stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, engaging the lock. He took the elevator up to the Toshinori Animation Studio office where he worked, took out his key, and let himself in. He didn’t feel the need to re-lock this door. His co-workers would be coming in shortly. He was surprised to see the light off in his boss’s office.

Midoriya placed his messenger bag on his desk, and took out a red apple, and polished it with his sleeve. He tapped on the door marked IIDA, TENYA. No response. He turned the knob and pushed the boss’s door open. Iida was not inside, sleeping from a long night, as he sometimes was. He left the red apple on Iida’s desk, nodded to himself, and then saw himself out.

As he was making coffee, he heard the office door open and shut. “Ohayou!” ( _Good morning!_ ) Midoriya called pleasantly out over the hiss of the industrial coffee maker. No response meant the newcomer was most likely the new guy, Bakugou Katsuki. For reasons he could not fathom, Bakugou was not nice to him, so when his cheerful greeting received no response, he feared being alone in the office with his angry work mate.

Collecting his coffee, he so snuck to the threshold between the break room and the animation office. Bakugou brought his coffee, so he wouldn’t usually stop in the break room, and Bakugou’s desk faced away, so he thought he could at least assess the situation before returning to his desk. Maybe Bakugou would be in the bathroom. Or maybe he’d be in a good mood today. No, that wasn’t like him. Or maybe —

“I’m sorry!” an apologetic Asui Tsuyu said, bumping into him. Their receptionist wore a lime green sweater with a cartoonish frog enamel pin on her chest.

“Oh, no, Asui, it’s my fault!” he said. “I was just—” Just what? It didn’t matter. “I mean, Tsu.” He remembered that that’s what she liked to be called, and made a mental note of it. She was making her coffee now, and she had a frog on her mug as well. _The Muppets_ frog character — Kermit the Frog. “Cute frog,” he said, heading back to the office again.

“Ribbit,” she said teasingly to Midoriya’s back. He shook his head. Tsu was a weird one, but some days he envied Bakugou’s desk. He’d suffer Bakugou’s angry stares if he could look past him at Tsu, but instead looking past Bakugou, he only saw Kaminari Denki, past Jiro Kyoka’s back. Tsu’s eyes were wide, but kind, and she was always hanging festive stuff on the front of the reception desk to greet workers and the occasional visitor on their way in, to remind everyone that happy workers were productive workers. He’d stopped noticing the exact decorations months ago, but he’d occasionally grab a candy from the jar. Last month was candy cane. This month was peppermint discs.

Midoriya didn’t look forward to sitting down at his desk and having Bakugou come in behind him, but, coffee in hand, there wasn’t really anything else to do, and it was still almost 10 to the hour, so he sat down at his desk and organized his sketches. The studio was animating a series about kids with superpowers, and Midoriya sometimes dreamed he was one of those guys. Maybe the guy with fire and ice, or the guy with the electric shocks. But he really admired All Might, the main character. He was kind of like a Superman. He had read the manga as a kid and had always wanted to work in animation. Now he was working on the anime adaptation, so whenever things got stressful at work, he could remind himself he was bringing the same joy he had experienced as a kid to a new generation of fans, even legions of new fans in the Americas and Europe.

The front door opened behind Midoriya, and he resisted the urge to turn his head to look, but Asui, already back at reception, called out, “Oh, good morning Iida!”

“Good morning Asui!” Iida declared/shouted, his commanding presence filling the room. “And good morning to you as well, Midoriya! I see you’re here early as always!”

“Yes sir!” Midoriya said, redoubling his efforts on the current page. Fire and ice guy was squaring off against a burned and stitched villain with blue flames. Their eyes were similar, and the fans speculated that they were really brothers. Of course, Midoriya didn’t have access to that information, but he loved the theory, and tried to work in subtle similarities whenever he could. Making their eyes slightly more similar than they were in the manga was one of those things.

“And good morning Bakugou!” Iida said, having reached his door.

“Morning, Boss,” the cocky artist said. “Morning, frog girl,” Bakugou said lower to Asui, taking a peppermint disc from the jar on the desk. A lump caught in Midoriya’s throat. He wanted to say something, but he held his tongue. “Oh, hey Midoriya,” he said as he passed, almost hissing like a snake. “Nice purse,” he added, glancing at Midoriya’s messenger bag. Again, Midoriya kept his peace.

The rest of the workers shuffled in. Sato, clad in red and green, brought a stack of donut boxes, as usual, and a few people made their way to the break room to grab some extra carbs to help kickstart their day. Of course, Sato brought one of the boxes back to his desk, but there were still a bunch in the break room. Midoriya dared to glance up from his work toward the break room. A donut sure sounded nice. He’d skipped breakfast again to make sure he got to work early. But as he looked up, Bakugou’s icy red eyes stopped him in his tracks.

“What are you looking at, nerd?” he asked, or rather demanded.

“I…” he stammered. No reason to lie. “I guess I was thinking about checking out those donuts Sato brought.”

“Oh,” Bakugou said, visibly annoyed. “Bring me back a maple donut. If they don’t have that… chocolate will be fine.”

 _I’ve been here longer than you,_ Midoriya wanted to say, but now he was committed. “Sure thing, Bakugou,” he said, shooting up to his feet and hurrying past his and Bakugou’s desks. He stopped. “Hey, Tsu?” She looked up. “Donut?”

“No thanks,” she said, and he headed back to the break room.

Surprisingly, there were slim pickings. The donut boxes were strewn across the two tables, and there were no maple donuts. There was one chocolate donut left, and while that’s what Midoriya had wanted, he didn’t want to eat it in front of Bakugou if he couldn’t bring Bakugou what he wanted. He wasn’t sure about the jelly donuts, and the glazed ones were too plain, apple fritters were too heavy… he settled on a donut with strawberry frosting and rainbow sprinkles. He took that and the chocolate donut and headed back to his desk. Bakugou wasn’t at his, so he set the chocolate donut on the blonde’s desk.

As he came around the desks to his own, he noticed that the blinds on Iida’s office door were drawn. He sat down and ate his donut with the last of his coffee and was just finishing when Iida’s door opened. Bakugou stepped out, turned, and shook Iida’s hand. “Assistant regional manager,” he said. “I like the sound of that, sir.” The cockiness was gone from his voice. He was all business.

As Bakugou sat down, Iida said, “Assistant _to the_ regional manager,” correcting him, but Bakugou paid him no mind.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been two weeks since Bakugou Katsuki was promoted to Assistant to the Regional Manager, and it bothered Midoriya. He had been the first to show up, always had his work done on time, had been a model employee at Toshinori, but then the mean and lazy Bakugou got the promotion he had been trying so hard for. In the past two weeks, he realized he had been giving less and less of himself to his job. He stopped being the first to show up. He stopped fetching things for his co-workers. He kept to himself and his work, and even his work had slowed down. He expected to be called into Iida’s office to discuss his declining work ethic, but it never happened. It had started, he supposed, when he brought his apple into Iida’s office, and there was Bakugou, handing him an apple of his own. And it was bigger, redder, and shinier than his. He turned his hand so they couldn’t see his, made an excuse, and left, embarrassed. He put his in the refrigerator and forgot about it. A week later, housekeeping had thrown it out.

As Midoriya walked into the studio, he straightened his tie, and ducked past Tsu, who gasped audibly as he passed, and then looked past him to Bakugou, and then back to him. “Ribbit,” she said nervously, but also slid her phone’s camera lens up to peer over the top of the reception desk, opening the camera app and tapping the record button, perfectly capturing the face-off to come. Midoriya took an All Might bobblehead out of his jacket and set it on his desk, facing Bakugou’s bobblehead, and he flicked the head. The motion caught Bakugou’s attention, who looked up at him, and then back down.

Bakugou returned to his drawing, and then stopped. Something… wasn’t right. He looked up… at himself. Oh, it was the nerd, alright. There was no hiding those damned freckles of his. Or those innocent emerald eyes. But his bushy green hair had been bleached white, straightened, and styled somewhat like his. It wasn’t perfect, and it looked stupid. He wore a black button-up shirt, not as nice as his, of course, and an orange tie, but it was a duller shade than his. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, nerd,” he said, and tried to go back to drawing.

“What kind of explosion is best?” Midoriya asked him out of the blue.

Bakugou looked up at him. “Well, it depends on what you’re trying to do,” he said. His father worked in construction, specifically demolitions. Bakugou had been enamored with explosives and demolitions his whole life.

“False,” Midoriya said. “You damn nerd.”

“What are you trying to do here?” Bakugou asked, bewildered.

Midoriya stood up. “Iida!”

“Iida!” Bakugou called, before realizing he’d sprung the trap Midoriya had set for him.

Iida Tenya opened his door, confused at the two Bakugous standing before him at their desks. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Asui lowering her phone, hoping nobody noticed.

* * *

“What were you thinking, Midoriya?” Iida asked, pacing back and forth behind Midoriya, who was seated across from Iida’s desk. “And… and why the heck are you dressed like Bakugou?”

“I…” Midoriya began, but he had nothing. He turned to look at Iida.

“Don’t look at me, Midoriya. You embarrassed everyone today, and what’s worse, you embarrassed _yourself_. And… this time of year, no less.” He shook his head and added, “Go home. And don’t come back until you’re… until you’re _you_ again.”

Midoriya got up, and bowed at his boss, but Iida’s back was to him. He was looking out the window and would not face Midoriya. “I’m sorry!” he said, but Iida did not turn back to him, so he backed out of the office.

When he turned to look at Bakugou, he noticed Bakugou was not at his desk. He was chatting up Jiro, while Kaminari, whose desk faced Jiro’s and worked with her, looked annoyed. Kaminari saw him, smiled, and made finger guns at him. Not the worst person to get approval from. On his way out, Midoriya dared a glance at Tsu, who was looking right at him. “Iida send you home?” she asked nervously.

“Yeah,” he said. “What was I even thinking?” he asked no one in particular, heading out. He didn’t see that Tsu’s eyes never left him until the elevator doors closed.

* * *

Three days later, Midoriya had gotten his hair close to its original color, and he had fluffed it out. It looked mostly like his old hair, he mused as checked it one last time in the elevator on his phone’s selfie camera. The roots were coming back his natural dark green color, but

“Oh, hey Midoriya,” Asui said as he stepped into the studio. He waved, and she smiled, and he turned to see a grinning Bakugou at his desk. “Ribbit,” Asui said nervously as he passed.

In front of Bakugou’s desk, there was no desk where his once stood. His work was gone, too, and his art supplies. He looked down at the floor. There weren’t even indentations in the carpet where the legs of his desk would have made impressions. He looked up at Bakugou.

“What happened to my desk?” he asked. Bakugou smirked at him, giving him a _wouldn’t you like to know_ look. Midoriya didn’t have time for this. He was already late, and besides, his work was behind schedule. He reached for Iida’s office door.

“Cold.” Bakugou said icily. Midoriya slowly turned back toward Bakugou. “Warmer.” Midoriya approached Bakugou, who continued. “Warmer — colder.” Midoriya looked back to Tsu. “Downright _frosty_.” Midoriya walked past Bakugou, who prodded him along. “Warmer. Warmer. _Warmer_.” He reached for the break room door, and Bakugou cautioned him, “Slightly chilly.” He continued on. Only the bathrooms, and the supply cabinet beyond this point. He considered the women’s bathroom, but then reached for the men’s room door. “Literally on fire,” Bakugou said. Midoriya tried it, and it wasn’t _literally_ on fire. He pushed it open and saw his desk between the urinals and the sinks.

Iida stood just past it, washing his hands. “I don’t know what your desk is doing here, Midoriya, but you have a lot of work to catch up on.”

“Yes sir!” Midoriya said, sitting down at his desk and finding the last thing he was sketching. He tried to concentrate as Iida dried his hands under the air drier. Kaminari came in and welcomed Midoriya back like nothing was amiss.

“And move your desk back out where it was!” Iida exclaimed, on his way out the door.

To Midoriya’s surprise, Kaminari wasn’t there to use the facilities. He helped Midoriya get his desk back out to the production floor. Midoriya thanked him profusely, but Kaminari wouldn’t hear of it. “I wish you and Bakugou would go a little easier on each other, you know,” he said as they negotiated the desk through the doorway. “Being the time of year and all.” Midoriya didn’t have the foggiest idea what he meant; he was just anxious to get back to work.


	3. Chapter 3

“Can I have everybody’s attention, please?!” Iida demanded, from his office doorway.

Bakugou stood up as a few people put their pencils and pens down and began to turn toward Iida. “Listen up, punks! The boss has something to say!”

Iida waved him down, but noticed more and more people turning to pay attention. Bakugou still took his place beside Iida, who then took a step forward. “I just got off the phone with Mr. Nezu. Juzo News will be coming in to observe some of the work we do here, and the boss approved it. They’ll be here—”

He was interrupted by a knocking at the door. “I think that’ll be them now,” Asui said, walking around her desk. “Shall I let them in?”

“Yes, yes,” Iida said, and Asui rushed over to open the door. She made her introduction and bowed, and a sharp-dressed reporter briefly bowed to her, and stepped in, followed by two cameramen. Iida bowed to the three of them.

“I’m Tokuda Taneo,” the reporter said. “These are my assistants, Suwabe and Yoshino.” Each of them bowed when his name was said.

Midoriya noticed Suwabe looked tired. He rose to his feet, ready to offer them coffee, but Bakugou spoke from behind him. “I’m Bakugou Katsuki, Assistant Regional Manager,” he said.

“Assistant _to the_ Regional Manager,” Iida interjected.

“Hai,” Bakugou confirmed in the shortest, most succinct way he could, curtly bowing to his superior. “We have coffee and refreshments, if you gentlemen would like to come this way.” The three men, led by Bakugou, did not even glance at Midoriya as they passed by, so he sat and returned to finishing the panel he was working on.

* * *

“Why me?” Midoriya asked nervously. He was sitting in the conference room, with the blinds drawn, alongside the wall. Tokuda and the tired cameraman, Suwabe, were sitting opposite the table from him.

“Please, relax,” Tokuda said. The more energetic cameraman, Yoshino, moved closer to him with his camera, and Midoriya looked up into the lens. “We’re just trying to get a feel for what it’s like to work for the Toshinori Animation Studio. So if you could, in your own words, tell us about something really funny that happened. I know working in animation can be stressful, so we’d like to get some comments on how you lighten the mood.”

“I know!” Midoriya said. “Well, I was in a secondhand shop with my mother, and I saw a shirt that looked just like Bakugou Katsuki’s. We were neighbors growing up. I found a matching tie, and for ¥1000, I had completed the look. I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I even bleached my hair. I looked surprisingly like him, so I decided to come into work _as_ him, you know, as a joke.”

“And… how did Bakugou take that?” Tokuda asked.

“He didn’t take it well at all!” Midoriya cried. “You see, we were friends when we were kids, and I always wanted to be like him. He was more popular… nobody thought it was funny, and I was sent home. A few days later, when I returned, he put my desk in the bathroom!”

“He… put your desk… in the _bathroom_?” Tokuda asked, bewildered. “You know, Midoriya, I think he took your prank better than you thought. You were friends as kids, and you played a prank on him, so he had to respond in kind. Don’t you think?”

“Well, I suppose,” Midoriya conceded. “I guess Kacchan — I mean, can you edit that out? That’s what I called him when we were kids. I guess _Bakugou_ is so serious these days, I feel I can’t read him.”

* * *

“Yeah, I got a minute. What do you wanna know?” Bakugou asked the reporter, kicking his feet up on the table.

“Assistant to the Regional Manager,” Tokuda said. “That’s quite a title for a man of your age. How did you get that promotion, and how is it working under Iida Tenya?”

“Iida’s not a bad boss. It’s just a matter of figuring out what the guy needs and making his job easier. And it’s just Assistant Regional Manager. You better get that right in the final version or I’m going to have a long talk with your boss!”

“Sure, sure,” Tokuda said dismissively. “We’ll clean it up in post. So you’re a big guy around here. Care to tell us how a guy like you gets ahead in a place like this?”

“What do you mean ‘a guy like me’?” Bakugou demanded, standing up.

Tokuda didn’t bat an eye. “I mean you’re all obviously overworked here. What is it that drove you to rise above the pack?”

Bakugou sat back down, grinding his teeth. “Well, I always liked superheroes when I was a kid. Always wanted to do my best, like All Might and Sir Nighteye and Gran Torino, guys like them. Found I had an aptitude for drawing, so I set out to bring their stories to the next generation of readers.” He looked away, then peeked through the blinds out into the office. “But, it’s really Midoriya who inspires me to do better.”

“Midoriya?” Tokuda asked. “Isn’t he the guy you’ve been feuding with lately?”

“You heard about that, huh? Yeah, we go way back. I _like_ superheroes, but Midoriya, sometimes it was like he wanted to _be_ one. He has a lot of heart, but sometimes his head’s just not in the game. He and I are the best at what we do here.” He looked back at Tokuda. “You better get that down. He and I are the best, but I’m more focused.”

“Well, alright,” Tokuda said. “Just one last question: what are your plans for the holidays?”

Bakugou took a deep breath and considered the question carefully before answering.


	4. Chapter 4

Midoriya racked his brain trying to find something to bring. He had been so overworked that he somehow missed that Christmas was coming up. Iida had announced, right before they left, that for Christmas Eve, they were going to finish work early, do a White Elephant gift exchange, and then watch the documentary that Tokuda and his crew had made. He walked back and forth at the mall. What was a white elephant anyway, and why would they exchange them? None of the gift stores seemed to carry them, but Iida described it as ‘a time-honored tradition.’ Without thinking, he found himself in a gift store that sold greeting cards, ornaments, and other Christmassy stuff.

“Sir, can I help you find something?” a young woman asked him. He turned around and came face to face with Uraraka Ochaco, a girl he knew from school. “Oh, Midoriya!” Her face lit up and she blushed — Midoriya definitely remembered her rosy cheeks. “What brings you into my little corner of this dirt mall?”

“I need a white elephant,” Midoriya said. “For some reason we’re exchanging them at work, and I can’t seem to find anything like that.”

Uraraka blinked, waiting for a punch line that never came. “Do you mean to tell me you don’t know what a white elephant gift exchange is?”

“No, I suppose I don’t,” Midoriya admitted.

“Hey, Ashido, I’m going on break!” Uraraka called out toward the register. A girl with pink hair waved, and Uraraka slipped her arm over Midoriya’s shoulders. He was taller, so she pulled him down into a huddle. “Alright Deku,” she said. “We’re going shopping.”

“I haven’t been called that since high school!” he complained, but he let Uraraka drag him out of her store and into the mall.

* * *

Midoriya was first to arrive at work again. Iida and Bakugou had set the stage the day before, so when Midoriya placed his present on the table, it was the only one, but as his coworkers filed in, the table filled with untagged presents, and soon his was buried in the pile. While Midoriya loved his job, he found the work tedious today. He kept looking over his shoulder at the pile of presents, and he wasn’t the only one. Bakugou kept looking at them as well, and so did just about everyone else.

When lunch rolled around, the office mostly cleared out, and Midoriya brought his lunch back to his desk. He was eating his sandwich and didn’t hear the footsteps approach from behind him. Tsu leaned back against his desk next to him. “Hey Midoriya, Merry Christmas,” she said, with a smile that seemed wider than natural somehow. There was something about her eyes and mouth, it got her teased in school, but she embraced it. She had been the frog girl for as long as he’d known her. And now, under her festive red sweater, was a green dress with frogs all along the hem.

He finished his bite. “Merry Christmas, Tsu,” he said, remembering her nickname. “What did you bring to the gift exchange?”

“I can’t tell you that, Midoriya,” she said. “You know the rules, right?”

“Yeah, we all pick numbers and then take turns picking presents at random, except people can steal taken presents.”

“That’s right,” she said. “But for the sake of brevity, once a present has been stolen, I’m going to put a sticker on it. That freezes it, and it can no longer be stolen.”

“That’s a pretty smart rule!” he exclaimed, but it screwed up his whole strategy. He was hoping for a high number, or possibly the highest number, so he could go late and have his pick. But if many of them would be frozen… he would have to plan differently. He knew Tsu’s gift would have frogs somehow. He bet if she took that sweater off, there’d be a big frog right on her chest, and he found himself wondering how long her sleeves were. He looked away in shame and took another bite.

As their coworkers began coming back in, Tsu patted Midoriya on the shoulder and returned to her desk. Midoriya almost absentmindedly ran his hand across the desk where she had been leaning. It was warm — then he caught himself and stopped.

* * *

“Number six!” Bakugou called out. Asui held the jar, and Bakugou pulled out the number and called it out. “Which one of you has number six?”

“Oh, me!” Kaminari called. “That’s me!”

“Well, get up there and pick a present off the table… or take one from one of your coworkers.”

Kaminari considered the five gifts that had already been opened. The All Might figure had already been frozen, so he couldn’t take that. Sato held out his ‘World’s Best Grandma’ mug for him to see. Sato would be taking that home with him. He considered Toru’s Sapporo Christmas lights. A string of Christmas lights in the shape of Sapporo cans. That was kinda neat. But he wanted a surprise, so he went to the table. The pile was already a mess, so he took a flat package from about the middle.

“Open it! Open it!” People chanted from around the studio.

Kaminari held it up and tore at the paper. As he saw what it was, he looked around in a sweat. “Who brought this?” Laughter greeted him as a reply. Midoriya tried to keep his game face on, but realized he needed to join the laughter to stay anonymous, so he laughed out loud as well. Kaminari was holding up a romance kit. A pair of fuzzy handcuffs, a riding crop, and some various liquids he was unsure as to the purpose of.

All. All Might. Themed.

Uraraka had taken him to a gift shop with a lot of things Midoriya did not recognize, and the way she corralled him, the staff assumed they were a couple, and she didn’t correct them. Midoriya even quipped that All Might was his favorite superhero. The clerk told him to go beyond, and he cringed, while Uraraka replied with All Might’s signature line, “Plus Ultra!” which got her a high-five from the clerk, who offered to gift wrap it for him. He didn’t want to be obvious, so he chose a generic Christmas wrapping paper with bells and wreaths. He was relieved when he put it on the table and hoped to never see it after today.

“Number seven!” Bakugou called out.

Iida stood up and straightened his shirt like the _Star Trek_ captain, then pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose. Kaminari weakly held up the All Might romance kit, but Iida never even glanced in his direction. Iida picked up a cubical box from the table, turned, and unwrapped it. It was a frog-shaped cookie jar. Midoriya shot Tsu a glance and smiled at her, but she held both hands up and shook her head as if to say, “not me.” Iida gave her a similar glance and a smile, and she only smiled in return.

“Number eight!” Bakugou called. “Who’s number eight?” No one answered. “Wait,” Bakugou said. He took his own number from his pocket. “I guess I’m eight.” He looked at Midoriya, and then to Iida. He took the cookie jar from Iida but handed it back. He went to the table and looked at a couple presents, but then he turned to look at the group. “Asui, sticker,” he said. She took a red sticker and placed it on the tip of Bakugou’s finger. Iida held the frog jar out to Bakugou, but Bakugou completely ignored the boss. He proudly walked up to Kaminari, snatched the romance kit out of his hands, and put his sticker on it. “This is coming home with me,” he proudly proclaimed.

Midoriya was shocked. Did Bakugou have a girlfriend? He tried to think. Who had he dated in high school? Then it dawned on him. He had gone out with… _Uraraka!_ That devious little minx, he thought. Did she know that he and Bakugou worked together? Had she encouraged Midoriya to buy the gift that she wanted Bakugou to bring home? He could imagine Bakugou holding that riding crop, but when he tried to imagine Uraraka cuffed… instead he saw Tsu, in that frog dress, and he was suddenly jealous. He put them out of his mind as Kaminari selected a new gift. An MP3 player. Satisfied, Kaminari returned to his desk a second time.

“Number nine,” Bakugou called. “And remember, you can’t take a frozen gift, so stay the hell away from my desk!”

“That’s me,” Asui said, and added, “Ribbit.” This elicited a groan from several of Midoriya’s coworkers, but he only smiled. Midoriya saw she had a sticker on her finger. She walked up to Iida, took the frog cookie jar from him, stickered it, and smiled.

“You… you can’t take your own gift, Asui” Iida stammered.

“The gifts are anonymous,” she said. “Besides, I didn’t bring this. I swear.” Midoriya believed her. Tsu was nothing if not honest. She always stood up for what she believed and was not a liar. Somebody wanted them to think it was Tsu’s contribution, though. He noticed Bakugou grinning but looked away before Bakugou caught him looking. Iida shook his head in disbelief and selected a new gift. He opened it to reveal a tea sampler. Nodding, he took his place.

“Number ten,” Bakugou said. “You damn nerd, you get last pick,” he said, his red eyes fixed on Midoriya. Midoriya looked around the room. Kaminari clutched his MP3 player fiercely, and Sato held out that pathetic coffee mug. This was his last chance to be rid of it. His contribution was held by Bakugou and was frozen. He didn’t want it back anyway. He was pretty sure Bakugou’s contribution was the cookie jar, and now that was frozen as well. The MP3 player was the most attractive option of the opened presents, but his phone could play music and he didn’t want to carry a second device. He opened the last remaining present. A set of All Might themed dishes. He didn’t think he could do much better. He showed the gift to everyone in the studio.

* * *

Cheers celebrated the end of the white elephant gift exchange, and Iida corralled them into the conference room. He opened a nondescript white DVD case labeled “The Secret Lives of Animators,” and took out what looked like a blank DVD with writing on it and put it into the DVD player. Iida turned out the lights and took a seat at the edge of the room.

They laughed and groaned at the video as the documentary showed them hard at work, and various interviews recounting their experiences working for an anime studio. When they got to the Bakugou interview, Midoriya looked over at his coworker, who was seated next to him, looking at the floor.

“Just one last question,” Tokuda asked on the television. Midoriya leaned forward. “What are your plans for the holidays?”

The camera cut to Bakugou, who had a dismissive look on his face. He took a deep breath and turned to the camera. “Well, I worked so hard for this promotion so I could make the holidays extra special for someone I care a great deal about,” he said.

“I hope she appreciates how much work you do here,” Tokuda said off-camera, and Midoriya imagined Bakugou coming home from work into Uraraka’s arms. And him showing her the gift he’d won at the exchange. And—

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” Bakugou said on the TV. “It’s Midoriya. It’s always been Midoriya.”

“Your… rival?” Tokuda asked, seemingly bewildered. Midoriya looked at Bakugou. He’d looked up to Bakugou when they were younger, but he’d felt it had been one-sided. Bakugou was staring straight ahead.

“It’s always been Midoriya,” Bakugou said. “He was always there for me when we were kids, and in the studio, the quality of his work pushes me to be a better artist.

“We interviewed Midoriya, and he felt he deserved your promotion,” Tokuda prodded.

“Midoriya is a great artist,” Bakugou told him. “But he lacks focus. He tends to overthink things. Iida said it was a tough choice, but he wanted a more firm assistant regional manager under him. So I rose to the challenge.”

Midoriya felt eyes on him. Bakugou looked… nervous? Angry? He wasn’t sure, but Bakugou was staring at him, burning holes through his soul with those fiery red eyes. “Kacchan?” he asked, forgetting that Bakugou had told him not to call him that after middle school. His thoughts returned to his earlier fantasy, about Bakugou and Uraraka, who became Tsu. He realized it wasn’t Bakugou he was jealous of. He had been jealous of Uraraka and Tsu! He realized he wanted to try those fuzzy handcuffs on!

“Say something, you damn nerd,” Bakugou muttered. “This is kind of awkward, you know.”

Midoriya didn’t know what to say. Bakugou had one hand on the arm rest between them, and the other on his right knee. Midoriya’s were both on his knees, which were shaking. He raised his right hand, which was also shaking, and almost as though it had a will of its own, he moved it to the right, and rested it on Bakugou’s. “Will you, um… I mean if you’re not doing anything, I mean… Will you spend the holidays with me, Kacchan?”

No one was paying attention to the video. On the TV, Iida was talking to Tokuda, but nobody heard him. All eyes were on Bakugou and Midoriya. Finally Tsu stood up and started clapping. Kaminari joined in, though his eyes didn’t leave the MP3 player in his lap. Sato looked down at his grandma mug, disappointed in the whole thing, but set it down and joined in the applause.

“Sure,” Bakugou said, but his voice cracked, and his eyes welled up with tears. “I’ll cook for you and your mother, Izuku. I’ve got this chocolate pastry recipe I’ve been working on.”

“My mother will appreciate that, Kacchan,” he said, then added, “I mean, I will too! I love chocolate.”

“I’m sure we’ll both put our gifts to good use, shitty Deku,” Bakugou said, remembering what he used to call Midoriya in school. He didn’t mind being called Kacchan, but he couldn’t let it go unanswered.

“Hey! Hey!” Iida said, realizing what Bakugou was saying, chopping the air between them. “This is a professional studio. And we are officially closed for the holidays! I will see all of you the first Monday after New Years.”

As Midoriya walked past his desk, still holding Bakugou’s hand, he looked quizzically at his stapler, which someone — and he had a pretty good idea who — had stuck in a dome of Jell-O.

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was originally for a TodoDeku story, with Deku winning the promotion that Todoroki earned. That was going to take place in a retail location like a supermarket or a department store. When I joined the 12 Days of BkDk 2019 gift exchange, I changed the characters and decided to make it a parody of The Office (US).
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed reading my story!


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